Now available on Twitter's Web, iOS and Android mobile platforms, the new-look profile is reminiscent of page designs on rival social networks like Facebook and Google+. Twitter also said it had revamped its iPad app.

"You can make your presence on Twitter more meaningful. You can upload your header photo, which appears above your Tweets, to express yourself instantly, anywhere," the microblogging service said in an announcement on its official blog.

Twitter tweaked its layout by compacting the rectangular block at the top of a user page and moving it into the right column above the stream of tweets. A header photo now sits behind the user's icon, name, Twitter handle, and profile details.

To add a header photo, visit the design tab in the Settings menu, then upload your new photo, place it on your page, and save your changes.

Facebook and Google+ have had similar-looking designs for some time. The micro-blogging site appears to be pursuing the cleaner, more user-centric and visually oriented ethos of those services, building out new profile options to help users get to know people better through their pictures, Twitter product manager Sachin Agarwal wrote on the blog.

For those who already express their individuality via a background photo on twitter.com, the header photo will only be an addition, not a replacement. You can still wallpaper your page with photos of One Direction or your cat.

There is no word on whether, like Facebook, Twitter will eventually force the header photo layout on all users, or allow people to choose whether or not they want additional images crowding their profile page. For now, the original Twitter layout is still intact.

The mobile version of Twitter also got a facelift, adding the header photo to users' profile layout, and incorporating a stream of uploaded photos, viewable as thumbnails or full-screen images.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.
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